Automate Subscription Management for CRM Contacts Using Workflows in Zoho Campaigns

Automate Subscription Management for CRM Contacts Using Workflows in Zoho Campaigns

Hello, marketers! Welcome back to Marketer’s Space. In this week’s post, we’ll look at how to simplify subscription management using Workflows for contacts synced from Zoho CRM in Zoho Campaigns. There are multiple ways to assign topics to your contacts:
  • Default assignment at sync: When syncing contacts from CRM, you can either keep them unsubscribed (no topics) or subscribe them to all available topics. This gives you a clean starting point, especially if you plan to collect preferences later.
  • Letting contacts choose: You can send an email campaign with a preference center link, allowing contacts to choose the topics they’re interested in. Their selections are automatically reflected in their topic subscriptions.
  • Manual updates via CRM: If your sales team collects customer interests during conversations, they can record them in custom CRM fields such as a field called “Interests.” These fields can hold one or more interest values like sale, product launch, or newsletters. Once these contacts are synced into Zoho Campaigns, you can build a Workflow that reads this data and automatically subscribes each contact to the relevant topics.
In this post, we’ll look at how to use custom CRM fields and Workflows in Zoho Campaigns to automate topic assignment based on customer interests.

Why automate subscription management?   

When both your sales team and your customers update subscription preferences, manual handling can get messy. Automating this process ensures that:
  • Your contact lists stay up-to-date
  • You remain compliant with email regulations
  • You send only relevant emails to the right audience

Sync CRM contacts with a targeted list   

To begin, sync your Zoho CRM contacts to a specific mailing list in Zoho Campaigns. This list will serve as the foundation for your targeting and automation.
Here’s how you can set it up:
  • Go to Settings > Apps > Zoho CRM and connect your account.
  • Then navigate to Contacts > Sync Services > New Sync.
Choose the CRM module you’d like to sync (e.g., Leads, Contacts or custom modules ) and map it to a mailing list in Zoho Campaigns.

Once the sync is set up, you can trigger Workflows using:
  • List Entry – Triggers when a contact is added to the synced list.
  • Field Update – Triggers based on changes to mapped CRM field values.

This setup ensures your Workflows respond dynamically to CRM data and list activity.

Capture interests directly in Zoho CRM   

Your sales team can log customer interests in a custom CRM field (e.g., Interests). This might include values like:
  • Sale
  • New Product Launch
  • Exclusive Content
These values become the key to targeting contacts with relevant content.

Create topics in Zoho Campaigns   

To align campaigns with user interests, create relevant topics inside Zoho Campaigns.
You’ll find this under Contacts > Manage Topics. 



Consider topics like:
  • Newsletters
  • Member-only updates
  • Sale announcements
  • Product launches

Organizing your campaigns under topics helps contacts manage preferences and improves engagement.

Build your automated subscription Workflow      

Trigger the Workflow   

Use the “List Entry” trigger with your CRM-synced list.
Alternately, use the “Field Update” trigger to filter based on interest fields or subscription status.  

Split based on Interests   

Add the Process Condition component and select the Multi-way option.
  • Branch 1: Interest is “Sale”
  • Branch 2: Interest is “New Product Launch”
  • Branch 3: Interest is empty → default to unsubscribe  

Assign subscriptions automatically   

For each branch, add the “Subscription Management” action component:
  • Branch 1 → Subscribe to Sale Announcements
  • Branch 2 → Subscribe to Product Launches
  • Branch 3 → Unsubscribe from all topics to avoid sending irrelevant emails
This ensures each contact only receives what they opted in for or nothing irrelevant.

Assigning Multiple Topics Using Comma-Separated Values   

If your CRM contacts are interested in more than one topic, you can record multiple interests in a single CRM field using comma-separated values. For example: sale, launch, newsletters
When you use the “contains” modifier, you can match this field against several keywords at once and assign multiple topics in a single branch.

Trigger the workflow 

Use the Field Update trigger and select the CRM field where interests are stored (e.g., Interests). This workflow will activate whenever the field is updated in CRM.

Add the Process Condition  

  • Insert a Multi-way process component and set the condition to: Interests contains sale launch newsletters 
  • Make sure the keywords are separated by spaces so that each word can be evaluated individually. If the contact’s field contains any of the specified values (sale, launch, newsletters), the workflow will take this path.

Assign multiple topic subscriptions 

To that branch, add the Subscription Management action component and add all relevant topics. This ensures:
  • A single contact can be subscribed to multiple relevant topics
  • No interest is missed out during automation

Advanced Use Case: 

Use an additional CRM field like Customer Type (e.g., Member, Non-member). Create a separate Workflow that:
  • Filters contacts with “Member” status
  • Subscribes them to exclusive member-only topics
This lets you send gated content without mixing up audiences.  

Use Segments as an alternative trigger   

Instead of using a list-based trigger, you can create a Segment using criteria like CRM fields or engagement behavior. Then:
  • Trigger a Workflow when a contact is added to a segment using the “Enter a Segment” trigger component
  • Automate topic subscriptions or unsubscribes from there
This is ideal when you prefer dynamic criteria over static list membership.

With Workflows in Zoho Campaigns, subscription management becomes hands-free, precise, and personalized. Whether you’re handling thousands of CRM contacts or running niche campaigns for select groups, this setup keeps your audience segmentation sharp and relevant.

See you soon with more ways to supercharge the Zoho CRM + Campaigns integration. Until then, happy marketing!

Regards,
Pearlin Nitika
User Education | Zoho Campaigns

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Getting error while while deleting from Activities Object

        I am trying hit this endpoint: - DELETE https://www.zohoapis.in/crm/v2.1/Activities?ids=725820000001141076%2C725820000001143056 HTTP/1.1 But getting the below error: - {"code":"INVALID_REQUEST_METHOD","details":{},"message":"The http request method type

      • Unveiling Zoho CRM's New User Interface - The NextGen UI

        Hello Everyone, Last Wednesday, May 14th,2025, we announced the public release of Zoho CRM For Everyone, our most significant update yet. This release brings a modernized CRM experience with a redesigned user interface, new capabilities for cross-functional

      • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | April 2025

        Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this April. Zoho Mail Filters for incoming emails in Shared Mailbox Simplify the management of incoming emails in your Shared

      • Deluge script for purchase receive

        Trying to create purchase receives.... receive.put("purchaseorder_id",poId); // purchase order associated ... receive.put("line_items",itemList); result = zoho.books.createRecord("purchasereceives", orgId, receive); info result;...... {"code":9,"message":"Purchase

      • Renew an expired subscription

        Hey Zoho officer, My subscription was expired yesterday, but I did not notice until just now. How can I renew the subscription even it is expired? The website is really important for our publicity. So I hope I can still review the domain and website. Thanks!

      • How to normalize CRM module when integrating with Survey?

        This question is about the problem with many-to-many relationships and Survey. One of the things our organization does is track people in our program and their jobs. We get new information from the people three times annually through Zoho Surveys. Survey

      • ZOHO CRM reverting contacts details

        Hi! Anyone else had a problem where +- at 20:00 NZT email addresses and company details reverted back to the ones that was previous changed? We had about +- 30 odd notification come through last night and had to go and change all back manually.

      • Announcing Zoho Community Developer Bootcamps in India – Extensions

        Hey everyone! We're back with another line-up of Zoho Community Developer Bootcamps in India! Following the success of the first leg of bootcamps on Extensions, we're now ready with the second leg. These bootcamps focus on empowering developers of all

      • ZOHO Sheet View for Activities

        Hello I am beginning to look at importing previous events into activities as utilizing events as timeslips for engagements, we have added fields such as duration, billable, etc. However to use Events on a regular basis would require the ability to use

      • Invalid URL error when embedded sending url into iframe for my website when using in another region

        Hi team, My site is currently working on integrating your signature feature as part of the system functionality, it's working great but recently there's been a problem like this: After successfully creating the document, i will embed a sending url into

      • Custom Serial numbers in Inventory tied to customers

        Hello, We have both software and hardware serial numbers that we need to track for active customers in the field. We do not know the serial numbers for the software until the customer buys it as its not a stock item but something we order and deploy for

      • Issue with inventory and shopify

        Hello! We're having some issues with Inventory not synchronizing all our products with our shopify store. We've tried multiple times to synchronize them. We have multiple locations and it seems to just be getting a part of the inventory. When we sell

      • Add an option to disable ZIA suggestions

        Currently, ZIA in Zoho Inventory automatically provides suggestions, such as sending order confirmation emails. However, there is no way to disable this feature. In our case, orders are automatically created by customers, and we’ve built a custom workflow

      • Automatic Pick LIst

        The pick should have the feature to send you to the FIFO location and tell you from wich bin you should get the product. Depending on FIFO LIFO or what we choose

      • Picker users

        Hi FOr bin location we are starting to use Android app. The users are allowed to chance the asignee, but they are the Asigneed persons. We should have the avility to choose or setup these fields.

      • Zoho Inventory MobileApp compatible with barcode scanners such as Zebra

        Hi, Although the Zoho Inventory App is working with a scanner mode taken directly through the cell phone which I do not consider it as efficient, I would like to know when are you planning an update on the app so it can be compatible with bar code scanners

      • More Payment Gateways For South Africa

        Hello, please add more payment gateways that cater for South Africa to the Zoho ecosystem. Yoco - pay now with card (integrated but there is a problem) Others to consider Payflex.co.za - pay now with card or pay later using credit from payflex Float.co.za

      • Sync Zoho Docs and Google Drive

        Sync Zoho Docs and Google Drive -  how can I do it?

      • Is it possible to link a CRM field or Zoho User to a ticket auto assign function.

        Dear Support, I have a unique situation at our company. So I know it might be able to link a ticket to the client account owner from the CRM. However, is it also possible to link an email field, username or other field in the CRM to a new ticket created

      • Drill Down - Pivot Table

        Is there anyway to have drill down options in pivot tables like in the chart function?

      • Allow Zoho form to send to one of our ogranizations groups

        All emails from the form submission are being held for moderation. I have permissions set to organization members, and I think I have the forms setup in our DMARC

      • Kanban view - which modules support this view?

        Recently (a few days ago), we started exploring Zoho Recruit and like to use Kanban view to visualise the data in different modules. I just found out from emailing Zoho Support that they need to enable Kanban view for different modules (why?). Which modules

      • Email notification for followers

        Is there a way to enable email notification for followers of a support ticket? ie: Ticket #123 is owned by Agent#1, Agent#2 adds themselves as a follower. Whenever ticket #123 receives an email from the customer, Agent#1 receives an email. Agent#2 would

      • Prevent duplicate with custom fields?

        I was wondering something about custom field/custom modules in Zoho Desk. For some reason you can make a custom field mandatory but not unique? For example, if I create a custom module to manage equipment and renewal and make a field serial number no

      • Remove the dot menu and + sign on sub form

        If I don't want the user to be able to add more entries on a subform, am I able to remove the dot menu and the + sign?

      • Writing Checks to Employees for Reimbursable Expenses

        I couldn't find a way to write a check through books or expense to an employee for reimbursable expenses. The expense created an entry in the system with a debit (expense) credit (liability). I entered a bill and used the liability account so it would

      • Peppol Malaysia API

        Hi Zoho Books, my country Malaysia will going to implement "Peppol" (E-Invoicing), starting 1 Jul 2025 for all businesses. The government intends to provide API for accounting app. The workflow involves creating an invoice from accounting app, triggers

      • Error "The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated. The server response was: 5.5.1 Authentication Required"

        Hi, I'm trying to send an email via the SMTP server using C# code but getting the following error: "The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated. The server response was: 5.5.1 Authentication Required" I know the username

      • Free webinar! The Zoho Sign Masterclass: The basics, latest features, and mobile apps

        Hi, Are you new to Zoho Sign or looking to brush up on its capabilities? This webinar will help you master Zoho Sign from the ground up, covering everything from the basics to the latest features. Whether you're an individual managing personal documents,

      • Home and Reports Tabs Not Loading

        Hello, I've been trying to view the home and report tabs since yesterday but the same issue persists. While the Home view appears, the data will not load (see screenshot). The Report view does not load at all. Clicking the tab elicits no response; the

      • Introducing the Zoho CRM Lead Magnet plugin for Wordpress

        In this digital era, websites are the most important source of leads. That means your CRM system should be well integrated with your website to contextually capture each and every visitor to turn them into a lead. Introducing the Zoho CRM Lead Magnet plugin for WordPress.  The plugin lets you to: Create webforms using Zoho CRM forms/ Contact form 7 plugin Embed them in your website hosted using Wordpress Automatically capture leads into Zoho CRM with zero attenuation. Not only is the integration

      • Team Modules in Zoho CRM: Empower Every Team, Break Silos and Boost Collaboration

        Hello Everyone, The ultimate goal of every business is to achieve customer delight—and achieving customer delight cannot happen with the effort of a single person or team. At Zoho CRM, we believe that it’s a shared mission that spans across your entire

      • Trying to integrate gmail but google keeps blocking Zoho access for integration??

        hi i am trying to integrate a gmail account so can track/access business emails this way. I have followed the instructions but after selecting my email account it gets re-routed to this message (screengrab below) Can anyone advise a way around this or

      • Zoho Projects - Give Project access to developer (external)

        We have a client using Zoho Projects and would like to invite several external users and assign the Projects because the Project tasks are outsourced to other companies. What is the best way to give access to external Users and is there any limitations

      • Introducing the Germany Tax Edition !

        Whether you're operating within Germany, trading outside the country, or dealing with customers within or outside the EU, our new Germany Tax Edition makes navigating the complexities of VAT management a cakewalk. Our Germany tax edition allows you to

      • Centralized Organization Information Management in Zoho One

        Dear Zoho One Support, I'm writing to propose a feature that would significantly improve the user experience and streamline data management within Zoho One. Current Challenge: Currently, managing organization information across various Zoho One apps requires

      • Including attachments with estimates

        How can attachments be included when an estimate is sent/emailed and when downloaded as a .pdf? Generally speaking, attachments should be included as part of an estimate package. Ultimately, this is also true for work orders and invoices.

      • Add Hebrew Support for Calendar Language in Zoho Forms

        Dear Zoho Forms Team, Greetings! We are using Zoho Forms extensively and appreciate its versatility and ease of use. However, we’ve noticed that the Calendar Language settings currently do not include Hebrew as an option. We would like to request the

      • Company centric layout

        Hey everyone, I want to have an "account-centric" Zoho, where the main part is the "Account" and other parts like "Contacts", "Deals", "Projects" are linked to this "Account". Tricky part is, that I have different layouts for different departments, and

      • CRM HAS BEEN SOOO SLOW For Days 05/15/25

        I have fantastic Wifi speed and have zero issues with other websites, apps, or programs. It takes an excruciatingly amount of time to simply load a record, open an email, compose an email, draft a new template, etc. Am I in a subset/region of subscribers

      • Next Page